


To Give Something Up (To Gain Something Back)

by Rellanka



Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [18]
Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Rebirth, Reference to onesided Sephiroth/Cloud, Reunion After Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23861863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: Towns are sending sacrifices to the Gods to save themselves from their war, and Cloud is the newest lucky one chosen.
Relationships: Genesis Rhapsodos/Cloud Strife
Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697269
Comments: 10
Kudos: 255





	To Give Something Up (To Gain Something Back)

“Hmmm? Well, now, this is interesting. Though I suppose that the vermin were destined to eventually reach the state where they would start trying to sacrifice one of their kind to save their own skins.” 

Cloud stiffened to try to hide a shiver at the voice that sounded out from behind him. When the God walked around him to face him head on, his heart sunk. Of all the Gods currently rampaging throughout the countryside, leaving entire towns massacred and entire cities decimated as the God’s war raged on unstopped for decades, Genesis was considered one of the worst. Known to be angry and vicious in his desire to tear the world apart, few who encountered him lived to tell about it. Even fewer lived and weren’t in agony for the rest of their short lives. 

It hadn’t always been that way. While Genesis had always been a God of war, he had once been just as well known for his love of the arts and Theater. He had loved them to such an extent that some say that Genesis himself would attend human productions of the play Loveless, a piece that had been written by one of his favorite acolytes. 

But that was before. 

Before the war was sparked by Sephiroth killing the new God, Fenrir. Fenrir, Genesis’ lover and mate; **And,** some later said, after watching the war God ravage across the countryside with little care for those caught up in his rage, **his mercy.** No one knew quite why Sephiroth had done it, though there were plenty of theories to go around. All anyone really knew for sure was what had resulted from the action; a long-standing war that had torn entire Pantheons apart as Gods took sides and fought to destroy each other, while every other living being that stood in their way was caught in the crossfire. 

Usually, those beings were humans. 

Sacrificing certain members of their population to these angry Gods had become common for some towns. A desperate attempt to stave off greater loss. So it wasn’t such a surprise, that his town might be willing to send someone out as a sacrifice to the God that they’d learnt was approaching.

It wasn’t even a surprise that they had chosen Cloud to send. 

He had always been considered strange by the town’s people. So many little oddities around him adding up to a whole that frightened and disturbed the people around him. No one knew who his father was, and some whispered that he didn’t have one; that he had just appeared in his mother’s womb and started growing without the help of any man. 

He was the odd boy, the Wolf Boy, the boy that could somehow find everything. The one that had crawled like a predator, and walked like the same. The boy with eyes so blue, so perfect, they _glowed_. The one who healed from a bruise in minutes, and a broken bone in hours. The one who livestock feared and cats ran from. The one who often had wolves come from the forest as they tried to coax him out of his mother’s house; not to eat him- but to _play_. The one who could go to the forest with the wolves that accompanied his every step and just loose himself for weeks, coming back looking healthier and happier, whereas anyone else would have likely only ever been recovered dead; long killed by the monsters that dwelt in the forest and made it their home. 

For this, and for many other reasons, Cloud was feared in his town. 

If the town was going to sacrifice anyone, of course it was going to be him. 

So Cloud stared at the God, braced for the worst, and yet the God had never even made a movement. Not to kill Cloud; not to hurt him. No, Genesis was just standing there, eyes fixed on him with a frightening intensity. If Genesis were a human, Cloud would say that he looked like he’d seen a ghost. (It was odd, wasn’t it? How some part of Cloud ached to see the God before him look so torn? How every part of him wanted to reach out and comfort the Genesis, make sure that he never felt such sorrow again?)

“Fenrir?” the God finally said hoarsely, as if the word had been forced out of him. 

And with the call of that name, something in Cloud **awoke**.

Cloud’s brow furrowed even as something in him shuddered and stretched out like a wolf shaking itself from sleep. It felt like… it felt like Cloud had been half asleep and only fractionally aware of what was going on around him for **decades** , and now the rest of him was finally waking up. He tried to shake off the odd feeling, even as it started to overwhelm his senses. Everything grew brighter and sharper and louder and more intense. He could feel the individual threads of the rope wrapped around his wrists. He could hear the skitter of ants from miles away. He could see… he could see every different shade in the iris of Genesis’ eyes, eyes that stared at him as if he were the only thing in the world. 

It was so much.

It was too much. 

Darkness rose up to meet him, and Cloud knew no more. 

***

Genesis barely even remembered the trip here, only fractionally aware of the way that he’d cut his beloved free of his bonds to ferret him away here as, the center of Genesis’ claimed territory. He was too busy gazing at the sleeping form in his arms in disbelieving awe as he clutched him close. It **was** Fenrir, his Fenrir. His lover, his beloved Wolf. Genesis had never met another being that managed to draw from him such a depth of emotion, of devotion, as this stubborn, foolish, **beautiful** God. His little Wolf, so young and defensive and snappish at first, so delightfully unimpressed with who Genesis was or the fact that Genesis, being the stronger God, could tear him apart with ease. He’d challenged Genesis, and interested him, and inspired him. And when he found that the Wolf shared his regard, it had brought him more joy than anything else had in the entirety of his existence. Their lives together had ben perfect, for a time. 

Before Sephiroth. 

Before Sephiroth revealed that he desired Genesis’ Wolf as well. Before he demanded that Fenrir leave Genesis to come to Sephiroth’s embrace instead. 

When Fenrir vehemently refused Sephiroth’s arrogant decree, Sephiroth had responded by starting the War of the Gods. And when Fenrir himself had raised up to fight Sephiroth beside Genesis, Sephiroth had killed him with a stroke that had been meant for Genesis himself. Fenrir had been young, so young as a God. He hadn’t had the power to live past that fatal of a stroke. Sephiroth had killed him and left Genesis alive to suffer through life without ever knowing Fenrir’s touch again, as he had made Sephiroth suffer for never knowing it at all. 

Genesis had nearly died that day, trying to make Sephiroth pay for what he had done. It was only thanks to Angeal and his apprentice, Zack, that Genesis hadn’t killed himself before now. Now, his only purpose was to gather enough power to face Sephiroth truly, to send him to the deepest layer of hell known to all of the Gods. Where he could lay there, and **rot**. Just as he’d told Genesis to do that day. That damnable, horrible day. 

Or at least, that had been the plan. 

But it was changed, now, fundamentally altered by his love’s return in his new form, physically the same but weaker by far than what it had been as a God. His soul was as strong as ever, almost shining too brightly for the flesh and bone that encased it, but Cloud’s flesh was now that of a human’s, and it made Genesis fear for him. 

Later, he would have to make preparations. He would have to make sure that Fenrir was placed somewhere safe, somewhere Sephiroth would never be able to reach him again. He would have to accept the help that he had previously rejected in killing Sephiroth because nothing was more important in ensuring he was wiped form the world now that Fenrir had returned, not even Genesis’ desire to be the one to shove his sword through the monster’s throat. 

And when Sephiroth was finally gone, he would have to make sure to let his love know, every day, how cold, and dark, and meaningless Genesis’ world was without him. 

So that his love would know to never, ever leave him again. 

(In the morning, Genesis would look outside the window. Would see the wolves of every size and color standing outside his gates with bristling fur and flashing fang, all facing outward and braced for war. And he would think that maybe, just maybe, his chances of his love staying by his side were even better than he’d thought.)

**Author's Note:**

> Me when I realized that all the people voting for me to post Genesis/Cloud next were probably expecting quality and lots of interactions: Oh no. Oh **_no._**
> 
> No, seriously, I feel terrible about it, even if I did try to edit it up so it wasn't completely terrible. (I just didn't have time to rewrite the whole thing.) Still, while it's likely not near as good as any of you were hoping for, here it is. Here's hoping it was at least somewhat enjoyable!


End file.
